


Even the Sun Must Sleep

by Vampiric_Charms



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-07 22:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4279515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiric_Charms/pseuds/Vampiric_Charms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lin does not return from her mission to rescue her sister from Kuvira, Tenzin is forced to face the dire consequences of his decision not to help her – and whether or not helping her now is the right choice to make.  </p><p> <i>AU set at the end of “Operation Beifong”, rejoining with the first bit of “Kuvira's Gambit”. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _This is a request written for Secret River Fan on FFNet._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Secret River Fan’s request was an “AU where somehow Lin gets tangled up in the Kuvira/Zaofu/Earth Empire mess…and somehow she gets taken hostage by The Great Uniter” and basically what would Tenzin do? It took a while to figure out where to place this and I finally decided to veer off from _Operation Beifong_. So!
> 
> Let’s pretend here that, as the Beifongs, Bolin, and Zhu Li were flying away on Opal’s bison after that final fight in _Operation Beifong_ , their escape wasn’t quite so simple. This four-chapter story starts right after Opal gathers everyone as they are trying to escape from the compound and jumps right in.
> 
> Enjoy!

"You need to get us up higher!"

Lin's steady command cut through the chaos around them, giving Opal something firm to hold to. She tugged her bison's reins, urging him to veer right and upward, but a steel cable shooting to their left startled him into a downward spiral. More cables shot toward them on the wave of the first, their pursuers intent on snaring them.

Her family, joined in their escape by Bolin and Zhu Li, held to the side of the saddle as Opal soothed Juicy enough to get him straightened out, no longer flying back toward the earth where several soldiers waited to take them captive again. Very slowly, he started going toward the clouds above them. Lin shot a quick glance to her niece, who seemed to have her own situation under control, before looking down over the saddle.

More soldiers were coming, pouring out of the compound like ants - though unfortunately they were still not high enough for them to look that small yet. She stood, extending one of her knives just as she saw yet another cable coming far too close for comfort. She cut it before it could curl around the saddle's lip, the frayed edge landing on Baatar Senior's feet. He yelped and clutched tighter to Suyin, who held his arm with both her hands, trying not to show how badly she was shaking herself when all she could do was sit there. The twins looked to their mother then, as well, wanting to help but at a loss of how. She turned her own anxious eyes up to her sister.

"Lin -"

"This isn't going to work," she interrupted before Su could speak any more than her name. "We're not going to escape this way. Not if I'm the only one who can -" She sliced another cable, spinning to cut a third as it found purchase on the leather. "I'm the only one armed."

"Then do something about it," Toph said gruffly from the center of the group, her blind gaze turned unseeingly toward her daughter's. They shared a moment of connected silence through the growing panic of their companions, and Lin turned away.

"Exactly what I was thinking.”

Su looked between them, not appreciating being left out of their unspoken conversation. "What? What are you going to do, Lin?"

"I'm going to shift the odds." She put a foot up on the edge of the saddle and crouched over her leg, peering down at the swarm below them. They were still too low. Only a lucky shot - or several bad shots at once that she couldn't undo - and all of them would be taken. But if she could just give the rest of her family a distraction enough to get out of range...

All in a rush, Suyin understood. She released one hand from her husband's arm and reached it for Lin's, her fingers closing around her wrist. She could feel the steady beating of her sister's heart through the metal of her armor, not showing a trace of fear, and her face fell in worry. "No, you can't go back down there. We're leaving together."

"You're leaving without me or not at all," Lin replied immediately, not focused on Su. "Only options."

"She's right and you know it," Toph interjected. "Let her allow you to get your kids to safety. It's why she came at all. We're running out of time."

Suyin paused, everyone's eyes but Lin's and Toph's on her as she slowly relaxed her grasp. Without another word, Lin pulled away from her fully and stepped out of the saddle into the air. 

"Aunt Lin!"

Su realized the moment after Lin began to jump that Opal was not aware of their change in plans, too focused on keeping her bison from scaring again to pay the rest of them her complete attention. It was as she saw her aunt falling that she called out, and Suyin climbed over the rest of her family to reach her daughter. "No, Opal, keep going!" She put her hand on her shoulder, hoping to comfort her child as much as herself when her heart wanted to break. 

"But -"

"We have to keep going, sweetheart," she spoke loudly over the wind. "Lin will be all right, she always is."

Opal shook her head, turning to look at her mother over her shoulder before she could cry with anger. "It's _not_ all right!" But she turned her gaze ahead again and continued them on their path, using the break in onslaught from below to turn them upward at a faster pace until they came through the clouds.

Suyin sat back, watching as her sister became smaller and smaller below.

xXx

The air buffeting around her was almost a comfort, as Lin allowed her body to free-fall to the earth. She and Tenzin used to play like this in their younger years, him taking her below the clouds and letting go - always close, should she need a catch - for her to command the earth to swallow her landing. It had been a very long time, even before their relationship had broken apart, but she still remembered the feeling, etched under her skin into her muscle with every memory of bending she had.

If she let herself close her eyes for the briefest second, she could almost imagine he was there with her, flying at her side with his glider and ready to open his arms to gather her into them. But he wasn’t and she was alone.

Ground loomed nearer, and she shifted to direct her feet to land first. As soon as she sensed the earth humming through her, she tugged it, turning it to sand and opening it below her. Her feet sank quickly and she fell up to her hips as the momentum died before she pushed out, the sand spinning her upward to deposit her neatly on solid land.

Soldiers on foot and in tanks descended on her immediately.

She focused on the tanks first, crouching to dig her fingers into the earth and pulling it hard. It followed her will, the ground under the machines' feet jerking violently. All of them stumbled and several fell, though she didn't pause before lashing out with a foot, weight of her body balanced on her arms, to send a spike of rock to knock the rest. Without anyone to protect around her, she had nothing to lose - and so she didn't hold back. All they needed above was thirty seconds, at most, and then it wouldn’t matter anymore.

Her feet hit the dirt again and as she raised her arms she brought up a wall of earth just as the tanks facing her on their sides sprayed fire from the mechanical hoses. She left the wall intact and pulled her wires out through her gauntlets, ready to attack when the first wave of soldiers sprang forward.

Four of them were in the front line, each pulling a massive boulder from the ground to throw at her in sync. Lin held up her hands and absorbed the will of their earth, turning them to dusty clouds of rubble. The same fate became three more before she tired of the back and forth and struck out with a cord, pushing down the first two rows of her attackers. She didn't necessarily want to kill anyone, or even maim them beyond what a healer could fix.

She spared a quick glance up to the sky. The bison carrying her family was nearly a tiny dot in the clouds. They were safe.

A thick steel wire blew by her face, startling her hair. She spun around to see two of the tanks were up again, ambling toward her. Her eyebrows narrowed and, when the wire shot again, she wrapped her own around it and launched herself forward with the momentum of its grab, knife ready. The blade sliced out, nearly severing the left arm from the machine's body, and the driver staggered backward in surprise at her attack. She swung again, shoving this time to break the platinum limb off.

"Get her!" the man driving the tank cried angrily, his voice muffled through the glass of his cockpit.

She was able to dismantle the remaining arm before allowing the soldiers to overrun her without continuing to fight as they dragged her to the ground.

xXx

Republic City came into view just after sunset, glittering brightly on the horizon. Suyin breathed a sigh of relief, her arms tight around her husband as he huddled against her. She raised one hand to the back of his head, reflexively looking for her own comfort in him.

"Land us as close to City Hall as you can, Opal," she said. "We need to find Tenzin and Raiko, they have to know what is going on."

Opal nodded, guiding Juicy over the rooftops and slowly down into the city center. People looked up at them, shielding their eyes against the sun as the bison touched down with a thud. Almost immediately, the Beifongs, along with Bolin and Zhu Li, slid off, thankful to be safe among friends again. Suyin started marching toward the steps of City Hall, intent on finding either of the men she had mentioned, but Opal reached out for her, stopping her mid-stride.

"Mom, wait."

"What is it, dear?" she asked, trying not to let her impatience filter into her question. The expression on her daughter's face, though, clenched around her heart, and any irritation she may have felt vanished. She opened her arms and Opal fell into the embrace.

"Why did we leave her there?" Opal murmured against her.

"It wasn't done out of malevolence, sweetheart, you know that. We had to." She ran her hand over Opal's disheveled hair. "We'll go back for her as soon as it's safe to do so."

She nodded and took a breath. After a moment, she pulled away. "I thought you should know - Master Tenzin - well, Aunt Lin asked him to come with us and he didn't. I heard her telling Grandma Toph last night, I don't know if she told you before we left her in the swamp. Would it - would it have made a difference if he _had_ come, do you think?"

"Oh, no, not at all," Suyin said automatically for her daughter's benefit, surprised at this revelation and keeping it to herself. "No difference at all."

Opal nodded again and walked off to join Bolin and her brothers, standing to the side and out of the way as they waited to follow Suyin inside. Zhu Li came forward and gave her a small bow. "Should we go on?" she asked politely.

"Yes, of course. Let's go inform the president his city is about to be laid siege to." _And,_ she added to herself, _to tell Tenzin that Lin had not returned with them._

xXx

Finding Raiko and Tenzin was not altogether difficult, as the president had gathered not only him, but Korra, Wu, and Mako into a meeting in his large office by the time she let herself in through the heavy wooden doors, Opal and Bolin on her heel as she guided Zhu Li inside. Tenzin got to his feet the moment he saw Suyin enter the room, while the teenagers looked around at her, startled to see her standing there at all.

It took only a moment for the surprise to fade and Korra leapt to up from the couch. “Su! You’re here!” She ran forward to give the woman a hug, which she heartily returned.

“My family is in the hall,” she explained, “but Zhu Li has some vital information for you all, it couldn’t wait.”

“Is Lin outside as well?” Tenzin asked, unable to restrain himself. He did well hiding the nervousness from his voice, and though Korra and Mako both looked at him and then to Su, wanting an answer as well, they didn’t hear the undertone to his question the way his friend did.

She met his eyes for only a moment and then looked away again. “No, she's not with us. President, Zhu Li, if you would? There are some important things we all need to discuss.”


	2. Chapter 2

Once Zhu Li finished explaining in great detail about Kuvira’s new plan of attack against Republic City, Raiko stood and gestured toward the open door. “I would like discuss this further in my private study,” he said, tone resigned. “We need to start making plans for the city. Avatar, would you join me? Suyin, Master Tenzin?”

He left the room, head held high. Korra glanced at Tenzin and Su, worry written on her face, but Mako put an arm around her shoulders and led her gently away. Bolin and Opal followed, meeting with the Beifong family waiting in the hall and closing the doors gently at Suyin’s nod. A deafening silence fell once the group was dispersed and, even knowing the president was waiting for them, Tenzin looked out the window and then quickly over at the remaining person.

"Where is she, Su?"

"Tenzin -"

Her tone was placating, patronizing and frustrated, and he interrupted her with a wave of his arm. "Where is she! Is she still there? Was she taken? Is she - is she _dead_? Tell me!" He grabbed Suyin's upper arms, turning her toward him before she could scoff or look away. The fear pulsing through his body was unbearable. He had to know.

Her lips pursed, but he could see fear on her face, as well. He loosened his grasp and she stepped back, though still close, reaching out to grasp his hand tightly. The touch burned, making this whole situation real.

"We were surrounded," Su began to explain softly. "Opal couldn't get Juicy a clear path and Lin...Lin gave us cover so we could escape."

"You left her there?" he cried, mind reeling even as he was given the information he wanted so desperately.

"I didn't have a choice! I had my entire family with me, my _children_!" Tears clung to her lashes, not falling but threatening to as she watched his reaction, and she dropped his hand.

"They could kill her," he moaned, looking around him in lost agitation. "What if they already have? What if -"

Suyin put her hand on his shoulder to stop him before he could begin pacing away from her. "They never harmed us," she told him firmly. "Sure, the soldiers may have roughed us up a little when we resisted what they wanted us to do, but our lives were never in any danger while we were held captive there. I'm sure Lin is fine, too, and she'll _remain_ fine until this comes to an end."

Tenzin shook his head, surprised by her lack of understanding in this suffocating situation. "Kuvira wanted you alive, Su, don't you see it? Lin - she means nothing to her! You..." He ran a hand over his face, trying so hard to keep calm and feeling himself failing when his tether, the one person who was always there...no longer was. "You haven't been here with us, seeing the outcome of her growing reign of terror. Lin is a threat to her grasp on keeping control."

"And what was I, then?" Suyin asked, offended. Her eyebrows narrowed. "A little rabaroo munching on grass on the wrong side of the fence?"

He glared at her, his temper growing. He wanted Lin at his side, not Su. He wanted her back, safe, here arguing with her sister instead of him in her place. As misplaced as it was, his anger toward Suyin flared. "You were a conquest!" he yelled. "An enemy to be brought down and displayed! She was never going to kill you, she wanted to show you to the rest of the world as the one she ruined in battle."

She was silent for a tense moment before whispering, "You're going after her."

It wasn't a question and he didn't bother responding.

"Opal told me, you know. About how you refused to go with her and Lin to rescue us." Suyin's gaze was burning into his face, but he wouldn't look at her again. "Perhaps if you had, this wouldn't have happened."

"How dare you say that to me," he breathed, fury laced into every word. The worst of it was, though, he had already thought that very thing. The guilt was making him ill and hearing it said out loud was worse than having his inner voice say so over and over in his mind. His hands began to shake and he clasped them together around his waist. "How dare you, Su."

She ignored his anger, too used to the rage of her sister to be put off by his. "You are going to go after her, aren't you?" His silence was answer enough. She frowned. "You wouldn't come for me and my family, but you will for Lin."

"I...I can't leave her there to die. I _can't_."

Suyin's frustration and anger deflated, let out by a long sigh. She turned and lowered herself into one of the plush chairs, recently vacated by the group that had just left, and gazed up at him still standing nearby. "What are you going to tell Pema?" she asked softly.

"I..." He paused, taken off guard by the question, and looked around at her. She was staring at him openly, her expression sad. He shook his head and looked away again. "I'll only be gone for a day or so, I'll tell her as much."

"No, Tenzin," she hedged gently. "What are you going to tell her about Lin? About the two of you?"

His heart skipped at her insinuation, and his eyes darted to her quickly. He and Lin had not necessarily done anything inappropriate, but their relationship had changed drastically over the last several years. What had started as late-night dinners here and there had somehow turned into them both building streams of lies to spend time together that should have been spent elsewhere - usually on his part, at home with his family. They had become more and more bold over the last two years or so, spending nights in each others' arms whenever they could and seeking the other out during the day for the smallest reasons. Aside from the thin line kept between physical contact, they may as well have been truly seeing one another again. Except this time he was married.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tenzin deflected Suyin's question after a moment, his shoulders going rigid.

"Please, stop kidding yourself. I can see it all over you now, and I could see it clear as day when I was here months ago." She sighed, leaning back into the chair and letting her hands rest on the arms. "I may not have been around when you both broke things off a while back, but I can tell when two people are still head over heels in love. The emotion is one of the most obvious through the earth - as if I even needed to use seismic sense to figure it out. You're in trouble, you both are."

"Su -"

"Look, I'm not telling you to leave your wife, or cheat on her or do something stupid, okay? I'm just...have you thought about this? About Lin?"

Tenzin didn't answer, not even sure what to say when the first thing that wanted to come out of his mouth was a resounding 'yes', and Suyin continued without his response. "I grew up with you, remember? I saw what you meant to each other. If I had a person like that in my life - well, I _do_ , I have Baatar. That isn't a bond that simply goes away because you want it to. If I were in your position, with Baatar somewhere off in the wings like Lin is for you...I'm just saying, I would choose him, because I can't imagine my soul without my other half. Stop being so stubborn, for only a minute, and think about yourself without the consequences. What do you want?"

All he could think about in that moment was her, so far away and in so much danger. His chest ached painfully and he squeezed his eyes closed. Her face was there waiting.

"Lin," Su supplied for him quietly. "You want her."

He nodded once, stiffly.

"Then make it happen! What is the matter with you?" She stood from the chair and reached out to touch his arm, bringing his eyes to her. "You can't force yourself to stay in a situation that is slowly hurting you."

"But Pema would never hurt -"

"No," Suyin agreed quickly. "She would never do anything to hurt you. That's not what I meant. What I'm saying is, you can't continue forcing yourself to live a life that makes you so unhappy when the key to true happiness is right in front of you and so easily attainable. Do you understand?"

"This isn't fair," he muttered, lowering his head away from her. What she said made too much sense. It was an idea he had been harboring deep inside for a short while, only to quickly chase away as something he could never do.

"The lives we were born into, with our parents and their legacies - Tenzin, _those_ were not fair." She put her fingers under his chin, making him look at her again. Her voice was soft, imploring, when she continued. "You and Lin, though, you can still save each other from the shadows left behind, just like you began to when we were young. Let her _save you_." 

"I need to find her first." 

The realization - both of them, of having to find her and having to sort through his complicated emotions toward her – it was all overwhelming. Suyin withdrew and moved toward the door, pulling it open and gesturing to someone outside.

"Opal and Bolin can give you directions to the camp and any other instructions you may need," she said. "Go quickly and be safe. I'll give the excuses for you."

xXx

It only took an hour for Tenzin to gather what goods he thought he might need for the short journey and change into his windsuit, cloak securely fastened around his shoulders, before he was guiding Oogi through the night sky towards Kuvira’s camp. Bolin’s directions were good ones, all things considered, and as long as he stayed above the low cloud cover he likely wouldn’t be seen. 

A six hour trip, they’d told him, if he didn’t stop. The Beifongs had traveled for a good nine hours with the stops they had to make along the way, they figured, which meant Lin had been there for far too long already. Nearly a full day, it would be, by the time he arrived. His stomach was aching, the pain only kept at bay by the adrenaline rushing through him as he urged Oogi faster.

Suyin was so sure her sister wouldn’t be hurt, that because she herself had not been harmed at Kuvira’s hand – only taken captive – the same would be true for Lin. But Tenzin…he was sure of the opposite, that if she were not already…already – he couldn’t even think it. 

Guilt met the illness gripping his stomach, and he turned his gaze downward to be sure he was still headed in the right direction. 

If he had only gone with her. If she had only had him there to fight beside her, to have her back. Bolin and Opal were skilled, he wasn’t doubting that at all. But he and Lin, they knew one another’s styles, their thoughts and patterns. He should have gone with her. Not only for her to have someone to fight beside her, but as a _friend_. That was why she had asked in the first place, because she trusted him as her friend. And that was where his heart was sticking, over and over.

He had let his friend down in the worst way he ever could have. 

“I am a terrible person,” he said aloud to his bison. Oogi groaned softly, his rumbling voice vibrating around them both. “We have to find her alive. We will, won’t we?” he asked. “Surely Kuvira won’t have done anything drastic yet.”

xXx

The moon was just starting to set when Tenzin left Oogi hidden in the mountains and flew silently over the perimeter of the compound looking for the door Bolin had described, which would lead him down into the cavernous maze underground. He caught sight of it set in the face of a small hill, the metal of the grommets glinting dully in the moonlight.

There were no guards here patrolling this back emergency door, and he landed a ways back to watch for a few minutes to be sure. Once he had not seen a soul and was positive no one was coming this way, so far from the main compound where Kuvira kept her army close, he sidled to the door and opened the cover from the panel to use the code Bolin had provided. The door opened noiselessly, allowing him entry into a brightly lit earthen hallway.

He was careful to hide around corners and down empty corridors before he was aware the way was clear, like some game of hide-and-seek he and his siblings – and Lin – used to play when they were children with the stakes raised tremendously.

Most of the halls were empty, thankfully, given the late hour and the lack of crisis calling the soldiers forward, and he was able to find the corridor Bolin mentioned with only a small amount of backtracking and difficulty. The voices of two men met his ears before he came to the end of his current hall.

Tenzin peered quickly around the corner before pressing back against the wall again. Only two guards, both outside the door Bolin described as a holding cell for Earthbenders. He had given him a quick rundown of how to work that particular control panel enough to open the door and, depending on the cell inside, release it. Suyin also told him the actual cage would be made of wood, which was easy enough for him to break open without much sound. He hoped he remembered what to do without calling attention to himself, now that he'd come this far unscathed.

Taking a quick breath, he sent a silent stream of air up across the ceiling and down the opposite hall, knocking over something that sounded rather expensive and heavy, judging by the loud crash it made.

"What was that?" one guard asked, startled.

"I dunno," the other replied, his voice pitched down the hall as though he were trying to see from his post. "Should we, you know, go look? We're the only ones on this level, aren't we?"

"What about the prisoner?" the first man asked hesitantly.

"She hasn't made any kind of sound in hours, she's probably still unconscious," he replied dismissively. "Let's go."

Tenzin waited until he heard their footsteps fading off down the hall before rushing around the corner to find the little control panel. He pushed the nameless man's words about Lin being unconscious to the back of his mind to face when he was inside with her and looked quickly for the correct combination of keys. The door slid open with a quiet swish, closing again behind him.

"Time for the firing squad?"

Her voice, irritable as ever, floated weakly from a metallic cage hung from the center of the cavernous room. She sounded tired, winded and uncomfortable, but still ready to fight whoever had come for her.

"Lin?" he called softly, her name echoing around him through the chamber. He couldn't see her, and the lack of visual confirmation of her wellbeing made him more anxious than anything else so far. He swallowed the fear back and pulled on a breeze to carry him to the center of the room, alighting on top of the cage. It swung the slightest bit under his weight and he looked down immediately through the crossing bars, looking for her.

She was leaning heavily against the side, one arm wrapped tightly around her midriff. Every bit of metal, from her hauberk to the boots off her now-bare feet, had been removed. She almost looked naked despite her pants and shirt, without her armor to cover her as a second skin the way it always did. 

The movement of her prison brought her fading attention up and her eyes narrowed. "I thought I was hallucinating. What are you doing here?"

"Isn't that obvious?" he asked with a fleeting grin. She barely returned it. "Are you all right?"

She laughed mirthlessly, the sound thin. "Get me outta here and I'll be _great_."

"This is platinum, isn't it?" The question was inane, especially when she gave him a pointed look, and his panic began to rise. "Suyin said the cage would be wood. Why isn't this wood?"

"I destroyed the wooden one. They left it just a _little_ too close to the ledge there, could reach the earth."

Tenzin couldn't help the ridiculous chuckle that bubbled up at her words, but it died away quickly. "What should I do?"

"Don't know."

He looked down at her again abruptly, taken aback by how breathy her response was. She had leaned her head to rest against the bars, her face pale and almost unresponsive. "Lin," he pressed suddenly, wanting to bring her attention back to his, "help me here, surely you saw what they did - how they move this thing around or get it to open."

"Panel," she murmured, "by the door."

He let his eyes linger on her limp form for another tense few seconds before leaping away and gliding back to the main ledge. Muffled chatting from the other side of the door let him know in no uncertain terms the two guards were back from fixing whatever he had broken minutes before. Any mistakes made now would be costly. He studied the display panel. It was similar to the one outside, which he had used to let himself in, though it had a few more unrecognized buttons. Most were labeled, and he took a moment to read over each one's symbol carefully. All he wanted was to unlatch the cage door, nothing else.

Making as educated a guess as he could, he selected the button and depressed it. A metallic clang echoed from his side, where the cage was hanging. The guards outside made no notice.

Moving quickly now, he flew back to see the door had opened on the front side. He grabbed hold of a bar over the opening and ducked inside, shuffling to Lin's side. Her legs laid limply out in front of her as she pressed roughly against the thick bars, and she appeared to have fallen out of consciousness in that brief period of time. "Lin," he whispered, touching her cheek with three shaking fingers. "Lin, come back. We need to go."

No response was forthcoming and, thinking quickly, he reached out and started to pull her into his arms with the intent of carrying her. As soon as he jostled her, though, she came to fully and cried out in pain. He released her immediately, horrified.

"Broke a rib," she gasped, hunching forward and clutching her arms around her torso. "Maybe two. They got mad when I ruined that cage, didn't have my armor."

His mind went still with fear and he gazed down at her stomach and chest as though he could see the offending bones. Instead, now that he was close to her, he could see bruises and small cuts along her exposed arms from where she had likely gotten into a number of scuffles or full-out fights over the last day. "We need to go," he said, pushing his worries for her health to the back of his mind. "Can you stand?"

"Yes." She gritted her teeth and used one of the horizontal bars to heft herself up, not making another protesting sound. "Let's find my armor and get out of here."

"No, we're leaving _now_. Come on."

He held out an arm, ready to wrap under her shoulders to fly her to the ledge, but she pushed him away. "I am not leaving without my armor. Either I get it myself, or you help me. I'm not leaving it, no argument."

Tenzin paused for only a moment, but gave in quickly. That armor was her life. Whether or not she could replace it didn’t matter, and he understood deeply in that moment that she wanted hers and hers alone. “Come on, let me help you over to the ledge.”

She leaned against him heavily when he opened his arm again, letting her weight be taken by his strength as he stepped out of the cage and immediately pulled the air around them to land safely on the other side. He let go of her, lowering her body to the floor. “Are you able to bend?” he asked softly. “The rest of my plan depended on it, I have to admit. It would be easier to tunnel out of here than go out the way I came in. We don’t want to risk being seen.”

Lin fell onto her back and took a deep, steadying breath, her eyes squeezed closed against the pain in her abdomen. “Yes,” she said. “I can bend us out of here, no problem.”

She wasn’t being sarcastic, and Tenzin knelt beside her. “Can you feel your armor?”

She put her hand flat on the floor and sucked in another breath as she sent out her senses in a quick fan around her. There was metal everywhere. Platinum, steel, aluminum, gold – and there, her armor, on an aluminum shelf nearby. She released the seismic wave, the effort tiring, and opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling before turning her gaze to Tenzin.

“Storeroom. Five doors down, other side of the hall.”

“Can we tunnel over there?” he pressed, slipping an arm under her shoulders to help her sit up. “And then we’ll leave directly after you have your uniform on again.”

“Yes.”

It was all she said, and he helped her the rest of her way to her feet. She hobbled to the edge of the rock platform and swept her arm out, creating a ramp downward to the face of the cliff. Tenzin followed her slow pace, watching as she opened a small cavern for them to enter through before closing it again. He could hear the rumble of the ramp dissolving back into the rock again, leaving no trace of their departure. Darkness came swiftly around them, and he reached automatically for her. His hand fell on her waist without thinking.

“ _Not_ there,” she hissed with a sharp intake of breath just as he realized his mistake. She took his hand and put it on her shoulder instead. 

“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. But then he repeated, “I’m sorry. For everything.”

Lin didn’t respond, too busy moving earth out of their way and being as quiet about it as she could. He knew she heard what he said, including the undertone and urgency to his plea, and he didn’t push. After a moment, she mumbled, “No talking. I need to focus.”

He heeded her requested, keeping silent as she moved forward and closed their backward path. Her steps faltered every few she took, and he put his free hand to her other shoulder to give her support, should she need it, but she didn’t ask for a break. It was only another few minutes before she started bringing them upward and paused to press her hand against the rock.

“This is the room,” she said. “No one is in there. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Before he could tell her that was bad plan, she had opened a small passageway into the storeroom and stepped inside. There were only three short shelves lined up dividing the room and she made a beeline for the one holding her armor. She beckoned for it while she was still steps away and the metal flew to her, closing around her body the way it was always meant to. Less than a minute later she was returning to the hole and ducking back into the tunnel, closing her passage as though she had never been there at all.

“Ready?” Tenzin asked.

“Oh yes.”

Lin shoved forward with as much effort as she could, following Tenzin’s direction toward the mountain and toward their escape. She had never been quite so eager to go home before.


	3. Chapter 3

“Here, is this all right?”

Lin quickly shook her head, lip held tightly between her teeth to keep from crying out in distress. Tenzin released her to the ground again, letting her rest back against one of Oogi’s fuzzy legs. The bison turned his large head around to gaze balefully at them, feeling their anxiety and wanting to help. They were trying to get her up into the saddle to no avail, and every way Tenzin attempted to move her caused a great deal of pain to shoot through her body, radiating from her core.

“Just do it,” she muttered after a moment. “Just get me up there.”

“Are you sure?” Tenzin asked in concern, watching her face as it paled even more with every second that passed.

They had spent almost an hour tunneling out of Kuvira’s compound, and not once did Lin complain or make a word of protest. It wasn’t until they had broken the surface of the earth into the coming light of dawn that Tenzin saw her for the first time since entering that darkness, saw her drawn face and trembling body. She had fallen to the ground almost as soon as he called for Oogi, arms wrapped around herself.

She nodded curtly in answer to his question, already raising an arm for him to slide his under and around her back. “All right,” he murmured to her soothingly. “Okay. This will be over in just a moment.”

His other arm found purchase under her bent knees and, moving as quickly and as gently as he could, he spun them both up into the saddle. Lin’s voice broke out in a hitched sob, though she instantly pulled it back by biting her lip again and squeezing her eyes closed. Tenzin held her for a moment longer as she regained her composure before carefully laying her on her back, which seemed to be the most comfortable position she could find.

She was panting shallowly, trying desperately to get her pain under control, as she stared up at him. The fear there was not something he was used to, especially when she had been so in control just twenty minutes ago, and he touched his hand to her cheek. Something had changed for the worse in that time. 

“Only a few hours,” he told her firmly. “We’ll be home soon, I promise. You’ll be right as rain before you know it.” 

She continued to gaze up at him silently, unable to respond, and he swallowed. “Hold on a while longer, Lin,” he whispered, raising his other hand to cup her face and lowering his forehead to touch hers. He wanted to feel her warmth against him, even in this unknown around him, and it gave him strength. 

“Tenzin,” she muttered beneath him, trying to move her hand to cover one of his and giving up on the effort. The sun was flaming over the far horizon as they spoke, casting the sky with deep pinks and fiery oranges. “We need to go,” she told him weakly. “Now. We need to leave now.”

He sat back on his heels, looking down at her and shoving away his intense need to be near her. The desire to touch her was almost a burn in his fingertips as he pulled them away, but she was right. They needed to leave, he was being ridiculous. “Absolutely. We have to get you to a healer.”

“No…” Her hand was sluggish across the flat leather, finally finding his leg and grabbing at his cloak. “Kuvira – she was going to execute me. _Now_ , at sunrise. She’s going to – going to…”

“She’s going to know you’re gone,” Tenzin finished for her, his body going numb. Lin just nodded twice, her eyes sliding closed with her piece said. “ _Spirits_ , Lin, she was going to – I – what was she thinking?”

“My fault. I made the first strike, brought it on myself by taking Su.” The words finished in a faint mumble, head lolling to the side.

Reality came down harder than it had been before. If he had only been an hour later in leaving, if he hadn’t found her as easily – if he hadn’t come at all… The possibility that she may have disappeared from the world because of his own poor choices was a real one very abruptly, and the truth of it made him dizzy. He wanted to kiss her then, hold her hand to his heart and apologize until his words ran dry, until she understood the depths of how he felt.

But then – she already did understand. She knew him better than he knew himself.

“ _Tenzin_.”

“We’re going,” he told her, hands leaving her face as he began to scramble over her. But then he paused for just a moment, leaning back down to press his lips to hers, even unresponsive as they were. They moved against his slightly, barely enough for him to feel, before he pulled away and leapt over the front of the saddle to settle on Oogi’s flat head, taking up his reins.

The bison took off, the sun blazing into existence around them.

xXx

“Ten…”

Her voice was so soft over the rush of wind as they flew he almost thought he was imagining it. But he looked back anyway, just to be sure, and noticed she had moved slightly, rolled to her side with an arm extended as though she had tried reaching for him. The other was still clutched tightly around her stomach, fingers clenched in a fist against her waist. He could only see the top of her head rather than her face, given how he had laid her out in the saddle before they took off two hours ago.

“Lin?” he called back, worried then as he saw she wasn’t moving anymore. “Are you all right?”

“Put me down,” was all she said in return, the command dim and rasping.

“I’m not touching you, Lin, what do you mean?”

“ _Land_ ,” she mumbled, “earth.”

“We’re only a few hours from home, are you sure?” Tenzin watched her for a moment, the worry tripling when she didn’t comment. “Lin? Can you hear me?”

She didn’t respond at all that time and, wanting to see her fully without thinking about guiding Oogi while he was so distracted, he sent him downward toward a clear patch in the trees. Not to mention it was obvious she was asking him to let her down off the saddle; perhaps the jostling of flying was hurting her in some way and if he could find a way to make her comfortable before continuing on, he would.

Oogi’s feet touched down with a resounding thud, sending dust up around him, and Tenzin crawled back into the saddle to reach for her. Lin’s face was slack, her eyes closed, and she made no movement when he touched a hand to her cheek. He swallowed back his alarm, pressing two fingers to her neck and easily able to find her pulse there. He noticed a small pearl of blood then, at the corner of her lips coming from somewhere inside her mouth.

Acting quickly, he gathered her into his arms as gently as he could and lowered them to the ground, placing her flat on her back, legs sprawled. He could tell now that there was no wind rushing around them that her breathing was terribly labored, each rise and fall of her chest wet and rattling with great effort, but as soon as she came in contact with the earth her eyes fluttered open for a brief moment, her hand slipping down off her armor-clad stomach to find the dirt and pebbles beside her. She slipped her fingers under the surface and out again with the least bit of exertion from her bending, letting the soil cover her skin. Her bleary gaze slid upward to find his, holding it for only a moment before her eyes lost focus and closed again.

“Lin?”

Tenzin tapped at her cheek, trying to bring her back, but it was no use. He reached for her pulse, still finding it easily, though he could feel the slightest change as it began to slacken off and then come strong again. She wasn’t dying yet, but much longer without help - 

“Lin. Lin, wake up.” He put his hands on both shoulders as though about to shake her, even if he stopped himself from doing so. “Open your eyes. Open your _eyes_ , damn it!” The curse slipped without intention and his own eyes stung until he had to blink hard. “Lin!”

“What the fuck did you land for!”

The sudden voice terrified him, and Tenzin scooped Lin into his arms to spin them both up high on a stream of wind before he even saw the crouched old lady shuffling quickly out of the treeline. He studied her for a moment, his heart pounding adrenaline through his limbs, before a vague recollection filled his mind. He released the air from around himself and placed Lin gently back on the ground. She didn’t make any sound or movement against him.

“Toph?” Tenzin asked hesitantly, his arms still around his friend and ready to flee again in an instant should the situation warrant it.

“You are still flighty as your father,” Toph scoffed. She came toward then, a frown pulling her entire face downward. “Again, why in the world did you land? My kid needs a hospital, not a break mid-flight.”

“She -” He looked down at Lin, touching her face in the hopes of eliciting a response but to no avail. Her face was wan, her limbs limp, and long beyond being able to come to again. “She asked me to.”

“Of course she did, you idiot! What kind of Earthbender wants to die up in the sky when she could feel the earth under her instead?”

Tenzin’s aghast expression turned to Toph as he realized Lin’s motivation from before, but she held up a non-negotiating hand before he could speak. “Too late for regrets. Hold her chest up off the ground for me. Hurry it up, boy, every second wasted is a bad one.”

He hastened to comply, sliding an arm under Lin’s shoulders and levering her upward a bit, enough for her mother to swiftly and efficiently remove her belt, cables, hauberk, and gauntlets. She left them in a careless pile on the ground and picked out the two arm pieces to dismantle them down to bare metal, the blades and gold-plated elbow joints clacking to the dirt. She made several gestures, unsealing the closures and flattening them both, and then resealed them end-to-end to create one long sheet of metal.

“What…”

Tenzin wasn’t even sure what to ask as he watched in confusion. Toph seemed to know exactly what she was doing as she worked and, after a moment, she spoke in a brusque voice.

“I’ve watched your mother long enough to know a punctured lung and broken ribs when I feel them. The earth doesn’t lie to me about these things,” she said pointedly with no emotion. “The ribs feel like they’ve been done for a while now, but the lung…” Toph paused, running expert hands over her work and sealing down any imperfections quickly. “Feels like that only just took the brunt of those broke ribs now that you two are on the move, since she can still breathe. For now. This -”

She flung the solid metal piece out and around Lin’s midriff, closing it tightly about her ribcage. “This will hold her together until you can get to the city.” She smiled slyly at him, patting her handiwork. “Tell ‘er you did this, ruined her armor. Don’t want to take that fury myself.”

Tenzin lowered Lin back to the ground, staring down at her face and touching her hair. “Will it help?”

“Braces like these have given my officers a few minutes after a bad beating like she took, until a healer could tend to them. If your ma were here she’d be fine, but you need to get back on your way.”

His brain flustered through her words, still confused at where she had even come from as he blinked at her and then looked back at Lin. Her breath was coming a bit easier now, though her face was not gaining any more color. “Why did she tell me to land?” he asked again, voice cracking. He was desperate for comfort, for someone to tell him everything would be all right. “If she knew she was dying?”

Toph put a heavy hand on his arm as she stood. “Maybe she wanted to feel that earth again instead of the wind. Or maybe…” She turned her blind gaze up toward the deepening sun, warmth falling on her face. “Maybe she just didn’t want to be alone. You’ll have to ask her.” She turned back and, for just a second, reached out a hand as though wanting to touch her daughter. She pulled it back again abruptly. “Thanks for getting her out.”

Tenzin just nodded slowly, his eyes wary. “Kuvira was going to execute her this morning for saving Suyin. We were both just in time.”

That seemed to snap Toph back to the moment, and she punched Tenzin hard in the shoulder. “Get out of here!” she yelled angrily. “You blubbering idiot, thinking too hard about how much you love her – get her to a fucking hospital before she fucking dies _anyway_.”

He didn’t argue, gathering Lin into his arms again and standing, calling air around himself to lift them up into Oogi’s saddle. He settled her gently and removed his cloak to fold into a makeshift pillow to put under her head. She was still unconscious, not aware of anything going on around her. As he began to rush toward Oogi’s head and the reins, he caught sight of her discarded armor, glinting in the warming sun, and paused. He couldn’t leave it, just like she hadn’t.

“Aunt Toph -”

She was still several paces back, paying close attention to everything she could until they took off, and she turned her head in his direction. She seemed to know what he was after and, without pause she jammed her heel into the dirt to pop up the earth under the pile of metal. It flew into the air enough for Tenzin to catch in a ball of wind, guiding it to land in the saddle beside its owner.

Without another word, Tenzin urged Oogi into the sky toward Republic City as fast as he would fly.


	4. Chapter 4

Tenzin didn’t bother landing on the outskirts of Republic City as the golden roofs opened quickly below him. Instead, without a care for space or crowds, he urged Oogi into the city center toward the hospital situated near City Hall and the police precinct. It was still mid-morning, not yet ten o’clock, and many people out running errands or talking in the streets stopped and looked up as the bison came lower and lower over their heads without slowing, finally coming to a skidding stop in the cobbled courtyard just outside the fancy medical center.

“We’re here, Lin,” he told her, flinging himself backward into the saddle to gather her up. She was unconscious, not responding to his words even a little, but he hadn’t stopped speaking to her the entire way in the hope maybe, _maybe_ , she would be able to hear him even if she couldn’t speak in return. “You’re going to be fine now. Just fine.”

He hadn’t seen her closely since they had stopped in the clearing, and he was relieved to find her alive and breathing under his hands as he pulled her to his chest. A very thin line of blood, mostly dry by then, was staining her skin from her lip and he could see more inside her mouth, but it didn’t appear to be as fresh as it had been before, when Toph put the brace on.

“All right,” he murmured just before standing and jumping down as gently as he could.

The main doors of the hospital were close and he ran to them quickly, using a burst of wind to propel himself forward. “We need some help here, please,” he called the moment he was inside.

Several aides glanced up from the check-in counter, expecting to see some standard illness with an unnecessary rush, but they leapt into action immediately when they saw Tenzin. A woman came toward them, reaching her hands out toward Lin in his arms, first to find her fluttering pulse and then to touch her face, chest, abdomen. She beckoned to the man following her, dragging a stretcher pulled up from behind the counter and they set it down on the floor with a clatter.

“Put her on it,” the woman commanded and Tenzin complied, releasing Lin from his grasp. She turned half her attention to her companion, eyes and gentle fingers taking in everything she could from the patient now in her care right there in the waiting room. “Call ahead for the metal pliers or scissors or something to get this band off. Make sure surgery room seven is open right now and if it isn’t, _make_ it available. Get two people down here to carry this stretcher to seven whether it’s ready or not.”

The man scampered off to obey her instructions. 

“It’s been many years since Chief Beifong has been in my hospital beyond the ability to speak for herself, Master Tenzin,” the woman said quietly as she continued to poke and prod, “and I have been here a very long time. What happened?”

Tenzin’s gaze flicked from Lin over to her, recognizing for the first time the navy blue band around her forearm marking her as a master healer. He had been so beside himself in his effort to get her to help that he hadn’t fully taken in his surroundings until that moment. But he paused over his response. Where she had been…what Kuvira was doing – it was all confidential information, even now. His stomach clenched as he stared down at Lin again and he swallowed. She would be furious if he told, and if word then got out before it should. Chaos would erupt if the city realized a war was coming.

“Master Tenzin, I need to know,” the healer pushed, her voice growing agitated. “Any information you have could save Chief Beifong’s life.”

“She was helping her sister with a group of rogue Earthbenders near Chin Village in the Earth Kingdom,” he fumbled quickly. “When Suyin arrived yesterday without Lin, I went to help her…and found her like this. It’s been about – about a day and a half since she sustained the injuries, I think.”

The flimsiness of his story was poor even for him, and the healer glared at him for a brief moment through his lie and away again. “Very well. _Han_!” she barked to the man at the desk, “where are the people to move my stretcher! We need to go before she bleeds any more into her lungs!”

“They’re coming, they’re coming!”

But even as he spoke, another man and woman wearing the sky blue robes of healers’ aides came running down the hallway and to their master’s side. “Lift her up and on directly to seven. Is it ready for me, Han, is my jade basin fully filled and have they brought in sterile bandages?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Han gave her a short bow as she rushed by him, following the stretcher carrying Lin and not giving Tenzin another look.

He watched helplessly as Lin disappeared. His task was finished. She had been brought to safety and was in the care of those who would heal her back to health. He could leave the hospital without worry, return to the island and come back to see her when she was in recovery later that day. Why, then, did he still feel so bound to her? As though her fate was still his?

“Um, excuse me, Master Tenzin?”

He looked around in confusion at the address, finding the young aide who had been at the desk coming to stand in front of him to bow lowly. Tenzin didn’t respond, but the man didn’t wait for one before continuing.

“I pulled Chief Beifong’s file while Master Unduli was doing her initial assessment and, well, she has you listed as her only next of kin. Chief Beifong does, I mean. Would you be able to fill out her admission paperwork or should I wait for her to do it herself?”

This seemed to cause more bewilderment in his mind than anything else thus far and for a moment he just stared at Han blankly, assuming he had misheard as the words parsed through again. Her next of kin. Was that some kind of inside joke she was playing, after all these years, to have kept his name on that form? It almost seemed like the kind of self-deprecating thing she would do, given how often she was in and out of this place. Spirits, it had only taken the aide a few seconds to even pull her file.

Han bowed again, a smaller one that allowed him to proffer a clipboard with a sheaf of papers attached to it. 

Tenzin took them without a word, only able to see the form had been mass-produced by the city’s printing press. The ink was old and stark on the parchment, not the earthy smell of the fresh ink in the well sitting on his desk at home, the scent he found so comforting. Nothing else made sense, the questions only an incomprehensible mess on the page.

“I’ll do it,” he finally said.

Han walked away with a pleased thanks, back to his desk to continue working, and Tenzin looked around the room for the first time. Several people were seated on benches placed along the wall, waiting to be seen by a nurse or healer, and many of them were staring at him wide-eyed after the scene that had just unfolded. 

He barely had time to take it all in before Suyin ran in through the large front doors, Opal and Jinora on her heel. She found Tenzin immediately, still standing dumbly in the center of the room as he was, and rushed forward to grab at his arm.

“We saw Oogi fly in,” she said breathlessly, searching his face for answers before even asking.

“Is Chief Lin all right, Dad?” Jinora asked, voice shaking as she stepped around Su to find her father. He reached out for her, opening his arm to take her into a hug. Feeling his daughter collapse against him somehow gave him a thread of hope again, the urge to keep his expression strong despite wanting to fall onto one of those benches and lower his face into his hands to cry.

He wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulders, glancing down at her head as she turned her frightened face up to him before looking back at Suyin and Opal. “A healer is working with her now,” he said much more calmly than he felt. “That’s all I know.”

“Was she badly hurt?” Suyin pressed. She stepped closer, her fingers tight around his wrist.

“Jinora, sweetheart, would you please bring Oogi back to the island for me?” he deflected for a moment. Su glared at him, but was silent as he continued. “Put Lin’s uniform in my study out of harm’s way and bring me back a change of clothes. Opal might need to help you carry the armor, so if you would, ladies.”

It was a dismissal, though neither girl argued as they hastened to comply. As soon as they were outside again, getting the sky bison out of the courtyard and on his way home, Tenzin gestured for Suyin to follow him to an empty bench. She did, her lips pursed in agitation at being kept waiting.

“Well?” she asked immediately once they were seated.

Tenzin lowered his eyes, seeing again the clipboard still held loosely in his hands and not having the slightest idea what to do with it. “She’s not well, Su.”

“Not well,” she repeated dismissively. “What does that mean, _not well_? ‘Bumps and bruises’, not well? ‘On her deathbed’, not well? ‘Spitting angry because someone tried to kill her’, not well? What is it? Now is not the time to be vague, Tenzin.”

He felt the bubbling anger toward her from before rising in his chest, just as irrational as it had been yesterday, and he swallowed. He was angry at himself, not at Su. This wasn’t her fault. Despite his best effort, sad and furious tears burned at his eyes and he used the hand not still clutching those ridiculous forms to brush them away before they could fall. “She’s still alive, if only just.”

“What - ?”

“For us, Su,” he interrupted, “she’d have died for us without a second thought, without any kind of regret. What kind of person is she, to do something like that? What are we, to let her? Though I suppose,” he added with a mirthless laugh, “I suppose this time it really was my selfishness that led to this at all.”

“I didn’t mean that, I really didn’t,” Suyin told him gently, her eyebrows turned down in concern for both him and her sister. “What I said yesterday about all this happening differently if you had come with her to save us – we don’t know that.”

Tenzin just hung his head, not having heard her as the tears fell anyway. “I feel horrible, Suyin. I regretted it the moment I realized she left without me and yet – yet I still didn’t follow. How will she ever forgive me, knowing I made such a trespass from friendship into politics! I didn’t mean it, truly, I just…”

She shifted to put an arm over his shoulder, hoping to bring that stability he’d had for such a brief second while his daughter was here back to him again. “You were conflicted,” she murmured, lowering her head to rest it against his. “I understand. _Boy_ , do I understand. Family or politics, where the line is drawn. I could have prevented this whole thing, right, if that line were not quite so blurry, by just letting Kuvira take my home and fleeing with my husband and children. Our lives, Tenny, they’re always going to be run by the public choices we make – not the private ones – whether we like it or not. Lin understands that, too.”

He nodded silently and took comfort from her words, true as they were.

“Please, Tenzin, please tell me how my sister is,” Suyin whispered. “At least as much as you know.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! Thank you to everyone who has been reading. I have another longer piece in the works so, if you want to follow another adventure with Lin and Tenzin, look for it to be posted in the next few weeks.
> 
> Enjoy, and thank you all again!

It was only two hours later that a nurse emerged from the depths of the hospital. Tenzin looked up hopefully, just as he had every time someone wearing blue robes had walked out during the time he’d been sitting there. This time the woman approached him, a tired smile pulling at her lips. She stopped a few paces away and gave him a respectful bow, even as he got quickly to his feet.

“Master Tenzin,” she said tidily. “Master Unduli will see you now.”

He followed as she beckoned him down the hall, up a flight of stairs, and down another corridor. There were rooms of patients here, and his heart leapt into his throat. Unduli poked her head out of one room, catching sight of them and waving her hand to send the nurse in another direction.

“Here, Master Tenzin,” she called to him before he could ask.

He stepped into the room. Lin was lying in bed, her eyes closed and seeming just as unresponsive as she had been when he had last seen her. Her breathing, though, appeared to be coming much easier, and bandages could be seen under the thin cotton of the hospital-issued nightshirt. Unduli was standing at the bedside, pulling healing water from a small portable basin sitting on a nearby table to heal the remaining cuts left on her arms.

“Small stuff,” she said as Tenzin came up behind her, “what’s left here. Just thought she’d appreciate having a few less scrapes to deal with on her own.”

“How is she?” he asked softly, watching over her shoulder as she worked and resisting the urge to reach out for Lin’s hand under this woman’s sharp eye.

“She’s just fine now. It was rough there at first,” Unduli told him without holding back, “but once we got her lung healed everything else fell right back into place where it should be. Day after tomorrow and it will be as though this never happened. That handiwork with the metal, I must say.” She paused to shake her head, chuckling slightly. “Saved her life, it did. I haven’t seen work like that in a few years, not since the first Chief Beifong was in office when I was still an apprentice.”

Tenzin did come forward then, walking around to the other side of the bed and slipping his hand around hers without caring anymore. Her skin was warm and flushed now, healthy, and he grinned with relief.

“I saved the metal,” the healer said quietly, sending the water back to the basin and dropping her hands. “From the brace. I could tell it came from her armor, so if she wants it back I left the piece right there on the chair by the window.”

“Thank you for everything.” He meant every word, and Unduli returned his grateful smile.

She did one more glance over her patient, then left the room without another remark. Tenzin kept his eyes on Lin, looking away only to glance around to find the chair. He carefully picked up the heavy metal scrap from the seat and placed it on top of a chest of drawers set against the wall before scooting the chair to the beside so he could sit, taking her hand again even before he was settled.

Suyin had left not long before to rejoin her family. Baatar was a nervous wreck, she explained earlier with an endearing smile, and she hadn’t wanted to leave him alone longer than she needed to. He knew he should call her, or send word somehow that her sister was all right, but he wanted this moment with Lin to himself.

He still loved her. He had known it for a while, truthfully, but the weight of this revelation hadn’t changed much in his mind until recently. Three years ago, five, ten – still loving her meant something unattainable, something to be held sacred as a precious memory. A love he had once had, true and passionate and resonating. _Real_ , was the word he wanted to use. Real and fierce, in every wonderful way he could ever have imagined. 

But still a memory.

Now…now something had changed. Some small thing between them had shifted to bring their paths to merge again. He could not mark a day or time, aside from ‘recently’. And so – ‘recently’ – still loving her meant something dangerous, in that real and fierce way. Dangerous, but still so wonderful. He could feel it beating through him, tingling under his skin and through his muscle as memory turned _real_ again. Every tiny thing he remembered from their youth was there, waiting to be awoken with the smallest touch, a fleeting glance, a smile. It had merely been waiting for them.

So he sat vigil at her beside rather than returning home, silently repenting every transgression he had made against her over the last several days until he could say them aloud for her to hear.

xXx

It was nearing dusk when Lin’s fingers twitched in his.

The movement brought Tenzin’s attention quickly, his gaze darting from an unfocused spot on the blankets to her face. Her eyes fluttered for a moment before staying open, looking up at the ceiling above her and then left and right, slowly taking in her surroundings. She didn’t see him at first, not until she began to turn her head and caught the blurry image of him beside her bed.

She blinked at him, trying to recall to her mind what was going on and how she had come to be in the hospital. “What happened?” she asked, voice hoarse.

Tenzin’s free hand came up to brush against her cheek, moving a few strands of hair behind her ear, and he gave her a small grin as he sat back. “We accomplished our daring escape from the so-called Great Uniter. Do you remember?”

Lin took a breath, feeling the pressure in her lungs and around her midriff, and pressed light fingers to the bandages around her ribs. Tenzin took her hand from the healing wounds, squeezing her fingers with his, and asked again, “Do you remember anything from the last day, Lin?”

“I remember bits and pieces,” she whispered, looking at him again and then over his shoulder. “Mostly you being a big wimp. That, right there,” she said, holding up her other hand to point at the dresser. “What is that?”

She was referring to the metal brace Toph had made from her armor, and Tenzin stood to retrieve it for her. She received it gently from his grasp, holding the metal delicately as she gazed at it. Her eyes narrowed sadly as she took it in through her senses. “My mother made this,” she murmured with no question. “We were with my mother long enough for her to make this for me.”

“Yes,” Tenzin confirmed softly. “How did you know?”

“Right here, this mark.” She turned the piece over to point out a small oval shape imprinted in the corner where the two gauntlets had been melded together. “It’s her thumbprint. She would only ever mark things like this for me or Su, to let us know she was leaving them for us. Usually knickknacks, you know, when she got bored and wanted to make something. She’d leave it lying around somewhere for us to find, typically by tripping over. How we knew it wasn’t an accident, but a gift. This,” she paused, touching the indentation, “this isn’t actually her thumbprint, here this time, but it may as well be.”

He didn’t quite know what to say in response, but Lin shook her head, resting the brace on her stomach as her arms grew weary of holding the heavy piece above her. “The work was rushed,” she continued in a hush, “but she still did a perfect job, I’ll be able to mend them right back. Tenzin?”

“Yes?” he replied, reaching for her hand again. She slid in into his easily.

“I said such horrible things to her the night before we rescued Suyin. I never had the chance to apologize, given how we parted ways so quickly. I wish I had. My temper just got the better of me, I couldn’t -”

“She knows, Lin,” he interrupted gently before her face could fall any more than it already had. “Or at least, I’m rather sure she does. And when this is over, I’ll go with you to find her again so you can tell her yourself.”

“I truly appreciate that, Tenzin, thank you.”

Her smile was genuine, and it made his heart erupt in his chest. She moved her fingers in his, threading them together, and he knew she felt it even as tired as she was. “Lin,” he whispered, “I am so sorry. I am sorry for ever refusing to help you in the first place, and I am sorry for every poor choice I made that brought you here.”

“Oh, Airhead.” She squeezed his fingers and tugged at his hand, forcing him to lean forward as she brought him close enough to kiss his knuckles without moving herself. Just like that, her apology was given.

“Do you remember…”

He let the question drop off, the memory painful, but she had lowered their clasped hands to her chest and he could feel the faint beating of her pulse, giving him strength. It was as though that tether, which had been so frayed and torn since the moment he knew she was gone, had so suddenly repaired itself. “When we were flying back, you asked me to land rather than keep flying. Do you remember doing that?”

She gazed at him, her lips faltering into a small frown. “Yes,” she said softly, “I do.”

“Why did you want to land?”

Lin was silent for a moment, considering her answer. He could see several flitting across her face, her eyes downcast as she thought through what she wanted to say. Finally, she met his gaze again. “That bit of poem your mother used to quote – ‘Burning sky is extinguished as black wings fold gently about the heavens’ –”

“‘Rest, my children, for even the sun must sleep.’” He nodded, distracted, and frowned as well. “What, do you mean you truly were dying?” His fingers tightened convulsively around hers at the idea, though he’d already known anyway. It had been nearly impossible to deny, given the shape she’d been in by that point.

“Well, yes, I did understand that much. But more than that…” She sighed, frustrated when she wasn’t able to convey herself properly, and opened Tenzin’s hand to touch his palm against her cheek. “While I was losing myself, I recalled that poem. It was comforting to me, it always has been. About letting go, letting the cycle of life follow into the next day. But it also brought _you_ to me, through the pain I was in, and I knew if I could touch the earth I would be able to feel you as I fell asleep – that everything would be clear again, if I could have both you and the earth. Right,” she added with a small chuckle, “it made sense at the time.”

“It makes sense now,” he told her, sliding his hand to press more firmly against her face. He wanted to kiss her in that moment, a real kiss like they hadn’t shared in over ten years, not like the frightened, fleeting one from what may have only been several hours earlier. Her gaze, still held to his, was saying the same.

“Lin! Oh goodness, Lin, sweetheart, you’re awake!”

Suyin swept into the room, pushing the door open to let the bustle of the hallway inside with her. She ran right over to the bed and leaned down to give her a hug as best she could about the shoulders and a quick kiss to her cheek before plopping down on the bedside. Tenzin pulled back in on himself as Lin’s loose attention was taken by her sister, Suyin’s hands touching her face and hair as though looking for any leftover damage. She shoved the piece of armor away and plonked it on the floor without a second glance.

“I knew you would be all right, I just knew it,” she said with a wide smile, looking at Tenzin and then back at Lin. “Kuvira wouldn’t have dared do anything to you.”

Lin’s gaze slipped to his in confusion and he shrugged, telling her silently he hadn’t mentioned the missed execution to her sister. Truthfully, he hadn’t told her because he didn’t see what doing so would accomplish. To make her feel as guilty as he did, for leaving Lin in that situation? To prove to her he had been right about Kuvira’s differing motives toward her and toward her sister? There was no point to it.

“I’ll be back to see you after dinner,” he said, standing and taking a step back from the bed.

Lin reached out her hand for his again, and he gave it to her without hesitation. “Bring me something,” she requested, a lopsided grin pulling at her lips. “Hospital food is disgusting. Their rice is always undercooked and it gets stuck in my teeth.”

“Certainly.” He leaned forward slightly as though readying to give her a bow, turning her hand to press his lips to her palm. He lingered for only a moment, aware of Suyin’s interested gaze even if she already understood everything the two of them were leaving unsaid. “I’ll see you soon.”

She nodded, unable to respond as Suyin immediately began to engage her in conversation again. “I saw your healer outside,” she said excitedly. “She told me you’ll be released in the morning. It’s great, isn’t it? We’ll be able to spend some time together before Raiko will need you for the war efforts again.”

“Mm, yes, wonderful.”

“Aren’t you glad I sent Tenzin after you?” he heard Su saying as he neared the door. He paused, listening as Lin once again gave a flippant nonverbal response and her sister laughed airily. “Oh, he was a boar to get going, really. We had a nice long conversation in the meantime.”

“Is that so.” 

He turned to observe as Lin smirked, shaking her head slightly. She knew Su was bending the truth, not paying him any more attention. He wondered briefly if she would bring up the contents of that ‘conversation’ from the previous day, but then – he couldn’t find enough concern over it at the moment. What she had said, about allowing Lin to save him, it was true, and he wanted it all.

Lin’s eyes found his again over Suyin’s shoulder as he watched her silently from the doorway and he gave her a little smile. Things were moving, as they always were. Only now they were moving in a very decided direction.

Tenzin took a step back out into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind him. Come what may, he was ready. So long as he had Lin beside him, everything would be all right.


End file.
